Military Out of Our Schools Counter-Recruitment = Social Justice

I am writing you to encourage us all to continue to make conscious connections between our increasing culture of violence and militarization and the current events and tragedies that confront us in the news reports on a daily basis. Many of us have become so specialized in our professions and compartmentalized in our thinking that we lose sight of the “big picture" and fail to make those important links between multiple issues of concern to us all and our families and friends. This too often prevents us from galvanizing as communities and as a society to address the root causes of much that we know and sense is not right in our world.

The recent tragic events at Virginia Tech University remind us of why we can not as an enlightened society allow the military unfettered access to our children at their schools. Guns and violence are not “cool”, yet every day the military shows up at high school campuses in their, paid for by our tax dollars, recruiting vans and with JROTC. The Army’s Adventure Van, a huge 60 foot, 30-ton, 18-wheeler has several interactive exhibits that bring an adrenaline rush and glorify weaponry and combat. The Army’s 19 vans frequent various community events and two thousand schools a year, generating 63,000 recruiters leads. 

Check out: http://www.usarec.army.mil/MSBn/Pages/adventure.htm

Aside from the Adventure Van, the Army’s Aviation Recruiting Van contains an interactive air warrior and weapons display. The American Soldier Adventure Van has a future warrior display. The Army Marksmanship Trainer has an interactive rifle range. The Army also brings machine gun toting humvees, tanks and other military vehicles onto high school campuses to enhance their recruiting efforts. The Navy and Air Force also have multiple 18-wheeler and assorted vehicles with simulate weaponry.

If you remember what it was like to be an impressionable 15 year old, being awkward and wanting to please authority figures in one’s life, now imagine the Army Adventure Van pulling onto campus with all of the flash of a carnival arriving, with interactive video games and 9mm simulators that make war, violence and death seem like fun. For many of these impressionable 15 year olds, after many visits from the recruiters, by 17 they sign up for the “Delayed Entry Program.” But recruiters are not just at school; they are also hanging out at the mall, surfing Youtube and Myspace, and can be found at almost every professional sporting event. If that isn’t enough, we also have JROTC on almost every public high school campus in America. Everywhere they look; our youth see a culture that worships guns, violence, and a culture that makes war look like nothing more than a cool game. If this is not acceptable to you, now is the time to act.

CCCO, the “Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors” has been in the forefront of mobilization and leadership development among the poor, people of color, immigrants, women, gays and lesbians, veterans, youth and others historically underrepresented in the peace movements. By organizing youth of color to participate in its programs CCCO seeks to fill the void in people of color mobilization and leadership development and to broaden the range of voices heard speaking out against war by providing youth of color with an opportunity to work and learn in an anti-militarist organization. Youth learn leadership skills such as public speaking and presentations, community organizing, computer skills, program development, research skills & writing skills. The antiwar movement and counter-recruitment movement in particular need to have as much diversity in its materials as possible to be effective.  The outcome desired is to assist in the development of diverse, new leadership in the anti-militarist and peace movement, which will include youth, veterans, people of color and members of the LGBTQ community, while expanding the capacity of CCCO to implement its mission by providing resources, training and support to a new generation of peace and anti-militarist leaders.

The US Military is unrelenting in its attempt to capture young people. For example, in 2003 400,000 young people were recruited into the military through the Delayed Enlistment Program (DEP) alone. Our “Military Out Of Our Schools” (MOOS ) program aims to counter these vast recruitment figures by providing activists with strategies for gaining equal access in schools to talk about recruiting myths and alternatives to the military. In fulfilling its educational and training mission, MOOS produces an organizing kit and supports the production of AWOL magazine. CCCO has a special focus of serving communities of color, which are disproportionately affected by militarism and military recruitment. Since its inception in 1997, the objective of CCCO’s Third World Outreach (TWO) program is to counter military recruitment in communities of color, and to examine the historical relationship between people of color and the U.S. military domestically and abroad. Over the years the program has been successful in reaching tens of thousands of youth considered to be prime recruits, and showing them alternatives to military culture and the death machine. We have worked with countless national and community organizations serving low income people throughout the continental U.S., as well as Hawaii , Puerto Rico , &  Mexico , in order to inform youth of color of the realities of military life and the lies of military recruiters, and to stop the expansion of the military’ s “ poverty draft . ”

After 3 years of our “Alternatives to War Through Education (AWE )  being one of the model counter-recruitment programs in the San Francisco Bay Area, we are replicating its lessons in Philadelphia, one of the most saturated military recruitment spots in the country. Right now volunteer students from high schools and colleges in Philadelphia are working hard to reach young impressionable 15 year olds with the truth about war. The real harm it causes; the lives that are lost, the minds it destroys and the bodies that it leaves battered and broken. The traumas and abuses of war are real but recruiters never talk about them. Working with our “Military Out of Our Schools” staff and other dedicated volunteers in our Philadelphia office, these young counter-recruitment activists are preparing to take on JROTC and the recruiters in the battle for this country. We want and need to expand our “Military Out of Our Schools” counter-recruitment program all over this country. But these young people need all of our support today.

Here at CCCO we see and experience the effects of the recruiters on those recruited. Our GI Rights Hotline deals with the aftermath OF JROTC and recruiters on campus. Our before and after approach to recruitment and helping those who want to get out is one of the things that makes us unique. Since co-founding the GI Rights Hotline network we have helped to train hundreds of counselors and fostered the growth of other branches nationwide. We are receiving calls from all over the world, Japan, Iraq, and your town America, and they always end the same way with a soldier thanking the Hotline for being there, for that voice on the other end of the phone, someone who took the time to listen. The resistance to the war on Iraq among active duty soldiers continues to grow. Thousands of soldiers have gone AWOL; many more signing petitions and sending letters to their Congressional Representatives calling for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq and an end to US military occupation.

There are thousands of men and women who will be coming home as vastly different people, battered and broken. All too often those military men and women who seek help within the military system are ignored ostracized and reprimanded. After several attempts to get help and having been rebuffed, many of these men and women call our GI Rights Hotline , others go AWOL. But for every AWOL soldier who calls the Hotline there are still thousands who are suffering silently, suffering because they don’t realize that help is out there. When members of the military want information about their legal rights or possible discharges, they often do not know where to turn. That’s why CCCO must continue to be here for them. What CCCO has found is that the military continues to not give GI’s accurate information about discharges, grievances, and complaint procedures. Our work with GI’s reveals that the military gives threatening information about the Delayed Enlistment Program and AWOL status, and they are not dealing with the trauma they are creating with war.

Physical, psychological, and economic suffering by both the parents, women and children of our troops here at home is growing, as well the tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of women, men, and children, both soldiers and civilians, that have been killed, injured, and sexually abused in Iraq as this ill-advised war continues. We often counsel the families of GI’s and recruits as well as the GI and recruit themselves.  

We train thousands of counter recruitment activists each year, hundreds of Hotline counselors from around the nation have relied on our resources, such as the Helping Out listserve in order to assist thousands of soldiers when they dial 1-800... or 215-563-4620 from overseas, or go to www.girights.org. Directly due to support from folks like you the Hotline continues to grow as the numbers of calls continue to rise beyond our wildest expectations. We will not stop until our job is done; to keep a promise of a better world, one without war, to our youth. This work cannot be done alone; it will take all of us. We continue to partner with other organizations with similar constituencies on issues that relate to the devastating effects of war on our communities.

I encourage all of you to visit our website at: http://www.objector.org/

At our website you can make a donation, access resources for CO assistance and order literature to support your own anti-war and counter recruitment activism, or our publications, “THE OBJECTOR a magazine of conscience and resistance,” and “ AWOL Magazine: Revolutionary Artists Workshop,” that also supports CCCO’s programs, and sign-up for our free monthly newsletter “Objector Alerts.” You can also contact me personally or our staff at our Philadelphia office regarding volunteer opportunities if you live in either the Philadelphia or Oakland (San Francisco Bay) areas, or we can put you in contact with one of many of our nationwide partners that work as part of our network.

In whatever ways that you choose to support our organization and programs and allow us at CCCO to support you, I look forward to working together to achieve peace and promote individual and collective resistance to war and preparations for war at this critical moment in history. I encourage all of you to forward this information to friends, groups and family who may have need of our services, literature, or who may be interested in our programs and work and may wish to support our efforts.

We currently have the minimum 10 CCCO Board members that are required by our by-laws. As of June 1, 2007 the CCCO Board of Directors is:

Non-Staff Board Members

Ibrahim Raimey

Thomas Markham

Marc Liggin

Cesar Lopez

Marlena Gangi

Mario Hardy

Jeremy Glick

Alicia Miller

Staff Board Members

Wendy Carson

Kevin Ramirez

As a member of the Board of Directors Committee I can assure you that we are continuing to recruit new, diverse, talented and experienced CCCO Board members until we reach our desired maximum of 15 and replace Ibrahim who will be eventually departing. I have had nothing but a positive and productive relationship with each and every board member and am thrilled to be part of a new generation of talented CCCO Board members. At the same time I honor and so much appreciate the hard work and dedication of those who have come before me.

As a member of the Hiring Committee I can also assure you that we are diligently reviewing the many resumes that we are receiving for the GI Rights Program Coordinator position and feel confident that we will hire an experienced and competent GI Rights Program Coordinator by our July 15th deadline. We are hiring a part-time coordinator to begin with that will likely eventually evolve into a full-time position once again. We eventually are considering hiring a part-time administrative and office manager that will be likely located in the Oakland office that will take over the administrative duties that are not specific to any particular program or development and fundraising that previously were covered by other dedicated staff members so that our Development Director, GI Right Coordinator and MOOS Coordinator can focus entirely on those programs.

We are going strong financially, although we need to continually build an even more solid donor and diversified financial base. This is helping to be facilitated through a new stronger required commitment by all board members to do continuous fundraising along with our other responsibilities. We are also continually building a strong, unified and well-functioning Board that is making improved changes to our organizational infrastructure. This year we will once again begin holding a yearly Board Retreat where we will be visioning new directions for CCCO, as well as strong and relevant evolutions of our mission and future as an organization to meet the current and future needs of the peace, anti-militarization, anti-war and counter-recruitment movement. I trust that we can count on your understanding and support as we move forward in positive ways. Since 1948 CCCO continues to be an effective, groundbreaking, forward-looking and ever relevant component the Peace, Anti-war and Anti-militarization movement and cause and will be long into the future.

Thank-you!

Toward Peace and a Better Future World,

Thomas R. Markham

CCCO National Board of Directors Member

Military Out of Our Schools (MOOS ) Hotline:

1-800-NOJ-ROTC (1-800-6...)  

GI Rights Hotline:

1-800-FYI-95GI (1-800...)

Overseas # 215-...

CCCO (Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors)

405 14^TH Street #205

Oakland, CA 94612

(510)...

FAX (510) 465-2459

Email: info@objector.org

            And…

CCCO (Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors)

1515 Cherry Street

Philadelphia, PA 19102

(215)...

FAX (510) 465-2459

Email: info@objector.org

“The world will never have lasting peace so long as men reserve for war the finest human qualities. Peace, no less than war requires idealism and the self-sacrifice and a righteous and dynamic faith.”

--- John Foster Dulles

"The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood."  --- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Thomas M.